Chapter 17: You Left!

† Thursday, November 15, 2023.

It was mid-morning in Julie Kaiser’s kitchen. She’d gone on to work after dropping Sylvie at her daycare job. Cosette was watching her father across the table.

“How are you feeling, Daddy?”

“I’m better today. There’s less congestion, I’m breathing more easily.”

“But you still have a lot of bruises. They’re just in stranger colors.”

“Sette, I’m confused. Shouldn’t you be at school?”

“Mom called them Friday morning and told them I’d be gone for at least this week. Not that it matters.”

“School doesn’t matter? Why?”

“You know I’m assigned to the Fifth Grade but I’m doing High School studies. I’m studying algebra while in my class they’re teaching fractions!”

Continuing in a grim and bitter tone, “We don’t need to talk about school right now. You left us! Then our house burned down. Now you’re back, but, uh, battered. Except for Julie, Mom and I would be homeless now! And you’re asking me about school?”

Angered, Cosette stood so abruptly that her chair tipped backwards and clattered to the floor behind her.

“No! Just leave me alone!”

She fled the kitchen, then he heard her bedroom door slam.

He put his head in his hands.

“Fuck me!”

Half an hour later, he was at his daughter’s door, knocking gently.

“Cosette, I’m sorry. Can we talk?”

“Come in.”

He found her seated on the edge of the queen-sized bed. Her blue eyes were glistening, but her face wasn’t wet. After living there for only a couple of days, almost nothing about the room showed that a young girl was living there. The only exception: a floppy and dirty stuffed rabbit resting on the pillow.

“I know you’re upset with me, and I know why. I have a lot of regrets about the past ten days.”

“Why did you leave us? Because of Mom? Because of ME?”

“Oh, HELL no. Sette, I love you. I love Sylvie. That hasn’t changed. That will NEVER change. The truth is, oh, this is hard to say ... I felt I was failing you. Both of you. I was out of work for so long. I believed that, after the eviction, you would qualify for more aid if I was gone. I was so depressed I wasn’t making good judgments.”

“You thought we were better off without you?”

“That’s right.”

“And then you wandered around in the snowy weather without shelter or food until you were beaten and robbed and left for dead. Because you thought that was BETTER?”

“Yeah, correct.”

“Oh. Then the wrong Garnier is going to elementary school. Mom let you come back? Julie let you into her house? Obviously, they did. I’m not sure why. Do you know? No. Wait, let me think.”

She stood up and started pacing. It was a striking scene, a frowning young girl pacing back and forth trying to put her thoughts in order.